


Exposed

by Fericita



Category: Mercy Street (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-10
Updated: 2018-12-10
Packaged: 2019-09-15 21:58:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16941486
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fericita/pseuds/Fericita
Summary: This is just silly.  Emma lost her hair ribbon when she and Henry went to the field in season 2 and so naturally I thought "what would happen if Emma and Henry kept losing various items of clothing in the service of their patients?"





	Exposed

The wounded had been carried in all day, exhausted after an arduous journey from Fredericksburg, some 50 miles away. Scouts were reporting that the federals suffered losses three times as great as the rebels, who seemed quite comfortable shooting from their fortified positions in the heights behind the city. The losses were not so great as Antietam, and hopefully never would be again. But with 10,000 wounded in the battle, the staff of Mansion House Hospital knew their resources would be stretched thin as they received the soldiers sent to them. They kept a swift and steady pace of treatment all day, but by nightfall, the steady flow of wounded became a deluge. Supplies were scare, tempers short, and the air stagnant as too many bodies were draped over cots, propped on chairs, and even laid on the floor.

Mary Phinney wiped the blood from the leg of an unconscious soldier, looking for the source of the bleeding. Emma stood nearby, holding the hand of a soldier for who seemed healthy enough to be enjoying it. “Nurse Green, your petticoats, quickly, tear them into strips. My hand is currently staunching the flow but I fear if I move it all will be lost.”

“My petticoat? Surely I can go fetch you a bandage from the supply closet – “

“No time!”

Emma protested. “But they’ll see my ankles!”

Mary was firm. “He’ll lose his ankles if you don’t! Do it now!”

Emma still hesitated, and Mary cried out “Put childish things away! Think like a nurse, like the woman you are!”

Emma did as instructed, handed the strips of cloth to Mary, and then attended to her soldier once more, who seemed to suddenly be doing poorly as he had fainted at the sight of her shapely ankle.

Across the hall in the next ward, Henry was offering comfort to soldiers waiting to be treated. Dr. Hale, holding a saw in one hand, was walking through the maze of cots to select the next candidate for surgery. “This one right here, and Chaplain, I’ll need your help and your overcoat to help transfer him to the stretcher.”

“My what? For what?”

Hale, irritated at this breech of command, said through gritted teeth “All the blankets are with the boys still waiting outside. We need to transfer him. Your coat. Now.”

Henry took off his coat, gently laid it next to the young man who glanced in outright terror at the bloody saw in the doctor’s hand, and helped roll the man onto the stretcher. Henry rolled up his sleeves, and was about to turn back to his Bible and his reading when he heard Dr. Foster’s exclamations three beds over.

“Damn that Hale, he didn’t suture the stump correctly, the basilic vein remains exposed! But not to fear, I’ve seen quite an interesting procedure done in Paris with naught but a tourniquet and needle…Hopkins! Your suspenders! Give them to me!” The Chaplain unbuttoned his suspenders with one hand and held his trousers up with the other.

“I can go find the Matron and ask for – “

“Just do it man! Hand it over and then go check on Hale’s other patients. If he doesn’t kill them immediately I hope to give them the chance to recover.” Dr. Foster turned his attentions to his patient, and Henry awkwardly backed out of the room, still clutching his now gaping trousers. He heard Nurse Hasting’s voice as she ordered Emma in the ward across the hall.

“Nurse Green! I require your cuffs to pack in this man’s wounds!”

“But there are bandages just there –“

Nurse Hastings stomped her foot. “In the Crimea we learned to nurse without delay by using available resources! The cotton in your cuffs is ideal for this wound and I demand it at once! How dare you question Ms. Nightingale!”

Emma tore at her collar and cuffs, dutifully handing them over, and then rose to go the supply closet before any more demands were made upon her person.

Henry, watching her progress towards him, stood rooted on the spot, forgot what his errand of urgency was, and nearly forgot to breathe at the sight of Emma. As she walked into the hall, the lower half of her legs were revealed with every step, and her wrists and collarbone, exposed and beautiful, took all of his attention. He raised a hand in greeting, and as he did so, his trousers fell out of one hand, his Bible the other. The loud sound of the Bible dropping startled Emma, who was then startled even more by the sight of the Chaplain with his trousers around his ankles, his forearms exposed, and his eyes widened with – what was that, fear? Pain?

“Chaplain! What happened, are you injured?” she took his arm, but he shook it off, not meeting her eyes, not looking at any part of her, gripping his pants once more and backing away.

“No, no, I’m just, I’ll just, I must…”

Emma stared after him, worried about his state, but too occupied with the current demands of the ward to follow him. She resolved to check on him later that evening as she turned her attention once again to her mission to the supply closet.


End file.
